(Technical Field)
The present invention relates to a vehicle driving assistance apparatus and a vehicle driving assistance method.
(Related Art)
Conventionally, various vehicle driving assistance techniques have been proposed for assisting a driver in driving his or her own vehicle. For example, a known technique as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-287162 is configured to detect a passing behavior of the own vehicle to pass a preceding vehicle, and based on a positional relationship between lanes of the own vehicle and the preceding vehicle during the passing behavior, determine whether or not the passing behavior is unsafe.
An event may occur where the own vehicle attempts to pass the preceding vehicle in a no-passing zone. To prevent occurrence of such an event, it is desirable to restrict passing driving in the no-passing zone. For example, an alert may be provided via voice or the like. However, in some situations where the preceding vehicle to be passed is travelling, the alert provided to restrict passing driving may become unnecessary. Providing such an alert even after becoming unnecessary may cause a driver of the own vehicle to feel discomfort or the like. From such a point of view, there would be room for further improving or considering the above known techniques.
In consideration of the foregoing, exemplary embodiments of the present invention are directed to providing vehicle driving assistance techniques for providing an appropriate no-passing alert.